Method of incasing edibles



vMarch 3, l931 w` D. THOMPSON METHOD OF INCASING EDIBLES Filed Apil 4,.'1928 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR u 0mm @gef/fwd( ATTORNEY March 3, 1931.w. D. THOMPSON METHOD OF INCASING EDIBLES.

Filed April 4, 1928 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 1411il111111,11',111111111-111111111'1,11E111/l1111111111111111111111111111111111 INVENTOR ATTORNEY lll/[[11111]]llll/l//lllll A March 3V, 1931. w. D. THOMPSON 1,795,153

METHOD OF INCASING EDIBLES Filed April 4, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 l fATTORNEY Patented Mar. 3,1931

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIS D. THOMPSON, OIF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON,ASSIGNOR 0F OQTE-THIRD TO CARL H. CRAWFORD, 0F SPOKANE, WASHINGTONMETHOD or messina EnIBLEs Application ined April 4, 192s'.

The object of this invention is to provide a. novel method for incasingedibles. rIhe material preferably employed .is that which is broadlydisclosed and claimed in my application tiled October 30, 1922, SerialNo. 597 ,994.

One of the features of this invention is to provide a novel method forincasing an edible without the necessity of subsequently closing anyunsealed part of such casing.

A further feature resides in quickly immersing and withdrawing theedible into and from a relatively hot bath of material of which thecasing is formed.

A further feature consists in anovel element which not only functions toimmerse the edibles, but which additionally functions to sufficientlyagitate the hot bath to prevent the latter from surface scumming orotherwise hardening.

A further object is to localize the area of the hot bath with respect toits agitator in such a manner that substantially all of the bath will becontinuously in motion while the edibles beine: immersed are alsoprevented from escaping from the means vthat causes such agitation.

A further feature consists in imparting to the immersed ediblessuiiicient movement to insure uniform coating of the latter, not only onall of the convex peripheral portions, but also such cavities as forinstance the stem and blossom ends of apples.

A further feature consists in a. combined immersing and agitatingelement that is equipped to fully expose the withdrawn and incased fruitto the outer air to facilitate quick hardening or setting of thematerial.l A further feature consists of an immersing element that is inthe form of a rotatable wheel, in combination with means for feeding theentities to be incased into one exposed portion of the wheel anddischarging the incased edibles from another exposed portion of thewheel.

T he invention will be more fully described in connection with theaccompanying drawings and will be more particularly pointed out in andby the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Serial No. 267,368.

Fig. l is a vertical sectional view on line 1-1 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross sectional View on line 2--2 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a modified form of my invention which isespecially de signedY for coating confections such as ice cream.

Fig. 4 is a similar view with the immersing member in a differentposition.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 5`5 of Fig. 3.

Like characters of reference designate similar parts throughout thedifferent figures of the drawings.

First describing the specific structure shown, 1 indicates a double`walled vat or tank having end walls 2 and 3, side walls 4: andabottomwall. I have shown pipes 6 and 7, connected with said tankandthrough which hot water or steam or any suitable heating medium maybe passed to maintain the contents of the tank 1, at the desiredtemperature. A pipe 8, suitably controlled by a valve 9, may lead from asuitably heated supply tank 10, for replenishing the bath material asthe latter is gradually exhausted by successively casing of edibles, andalso to maintain the bath at substantially the level A, so that thelevel of the bath will constantly be in a given relation to theimmersing element, to hw presently described.

I have shown means for holding the edibles in relation to the immersingmember, and as shown, such means may be in the form of a peripheralguard 11, which is herein shown imperforate although this is notabsolutely essential. The arc of this guard 11 is suficient to extendabout all of that peripheral portion of the immersing element thatdepends into the bath. as will be clearly seen in of en agement with thelatter. Said guards also ave upwardly extending margins 14 to guide theincased fruit when the latter is being discharged.

Reference will next be made to my improved immersing element.

My improved immersing element is herein shown in the form of a wheelhaving a hub portion 14, to which or through which a shaft 15 may besecured or extended. The end portions .of said shaft are shown`iournalled in bearings 16, suitably mounted on the upper margins oftank 1, as shown in Fig. 2. Said shaft 15 may be extended at 17, and apulley 18 may be mounted thereon whereto ower may be applied by a belt19, to operate tplie immersing wheel. Said wheel is shown revided withsubstantially radially d1sp osed blades, which are shown as beingequi-distantly spaced apart and four in number, although this is not anessential spacing or a limiting number of blades. These blades or spokes20, transversely subdivide the wheel into a series of fruit receivingchannels which not only open peripherally but also cndwise of the wheel,the importance of both these features being hereinafter more fullypointed out. Further, I prefer to make the wheel of aluminum, tin, orsome like material ot' high heat conductivity, so that the wheel willnot only quickly be heated to the temperature of the bath, but also,because of the slight time of exposure to the air, will not appreciablylose such heat. I further consider it a feature to make the wheelsubstantially hollow so that the substantially dead air containedtherein will not quickly cool. Hence, it will be seen that the blades20, instead of being of a single thickness, are actuallv dou- 0 blewalled, and'hollow, and liquid tight so that Yto the conveyor 24, intimed relation to the the bath material cannot leak into the wheel.-

The fruit receiving channels of the wheels, all of which are preferablyalike, each have -what I Will term a. receiving bight formed over whichthe fruit may be rolled by gravity into said receiving portion 22. Ihave very generally shown a slide or conveyor 24. suitably mounted at25. and down along which fruit may roll over the hump 23. and into thereceiving portion 22, as will be clearlyv .seen in Fig. l. Of course,fruit will be delivered rotation of the immersing wheel. 1 As blade B,descends, the hump 23. will act to hold the fruit in place until blade lhas reached the leftfh'and'portiono flguard 11. Itwill be seen that theadjacent wall of the next blade C, is a flat gravity delivery Wall,which I will indicate at 26. I may state that the immersing wheel may bebuilt so that each fruit receiving channel will be of a Width to receiveonly a single fruit entity, in which event, the

ards 13, would coact with the wheel to revent the fruit from rollingendwise out o the fruit receiving channel before descent of the fruit.However, in order to illustrate how the capacity of the device can begreatly increased, and without in any way desiring to limit myself, Ihave shown the channels provided With subdividing walls 27 so that a rowof two entities may be delivered thereto from conveyor 24. I have shownsaid Walls 27 so spaced that different sized fruit may be received inthe resulting spaces. For instance, viewing Fig. 2, small size fruit maybe received in space 28 and large sizes in space 29. As regards thespacing of the blades from each other, the channels formed thereby may,and in practice have been so spaced that they will receiveY such avariant of sizes, in the absence of walls 27, that I could incase orape`fruit or lemons' with equal facility. lIl lith the walls 27, this rangewould be cut down as will be obvious. However, it will be noted thatfrom the bight 21 to the outer ends of the blades, the latter diverge,and in reality, this is the structural feature that affords me thegreatest possible range for different sized fruit. `Where walls 27 areused in the channels, like means, as indicated at 32, will be used onthe conveyor, 'in the same relation and spacing, whatever the same maybe.

Before entering into a minute description of the method and operation ofthe device, I will next refer to a novel means whereby the fruit may bedelivered or discharged from the iinmersing wheel.

I have shown a gravity delivery wall 33. on tank l, which is inreceiving relation with a gravity wall 26, of blade D. when the wheel isin the position shown in Fig. 1. Thus, it. will be seen that the wheelcan be loaded and unloaded from different points, and. in the presentconstruction, said points are different peripheral points. The fruitfrom wall 33. maybe received in any desired manner, not herein shown.

I have shown a fruit entity or entities about to be delivered onto bladeB. At this point, it may be informative to state that I have in actualpractice. with a single entity machine of four pockets as shown`successfully rotated the immersing wheel at fifty revolutions perminute, at which rate` I have incased two hundred apples per minute.Therefore. it will be seen that at such a speed. I have no diiliculty inloading and discharging while the wheel is operating at a constantspeed, and without the necessity of stopping the wheel for eitherloading or unloading. With a machine taking more than one entity,

the rate of operation would be correspondingly increased.

Continuing the description of operation. it will be clear that the fruitentity between blades B and E, striving to respond to buoyancy, takesthe position shown in dotted lines and will bear against guard 11, aswell as against wall 26, of blade B. As blade B descends further, theentity will, in responding to buoyancy. seek the highest abutment whichwill be the bight Q1, between blades B and E, for the reason that theouter end of blade B will continue to descend aud project below thelevel A, as rotation continues. Now it will be seen that the fruitentity, regardless of its size, is tloatingly immersed and advanced bythe blades, and is free to take different positions in its travelthrough the bath. Hence, I am assured that the bath material will notonly completely coat, but also will enter such cavi ties as the blossomand stem ends of such fruit as apples. for instance, and that the airthat might otherwise be pocketed in such cavities is bound to bereleased. As the wheel advances. it will be seen that the entity between blades Eand D, will seek the highest point, which is the bight 21.and then as blade E advances from the position shown, and blade I)ascends out of the bath, the straight wall 26 of blade E. will shift thefruit entity toward the guard 11. as bladeE asccnds. Thus. when blade E.reaches the point now occupied by blade D, the entity on top of wall 26.will be at nearly the radially outer end thereof and'iu positionquickly7 to roll ontowall 33. In fact, just as soon as blade I), gets tothe position shown, or as soon as it gets far enough so that the guard11 will release thel entity. the latter will, by gravity, seek aradially outermost position on wall 26 and after such entity hasascended above guard 11, so as not to he restrained thereby, it willfreely roll toward and onto wall 33, in spite of the fact that wall .20is ascending.

Now it will be clear that just as soon as thc entity emerges from thebath, it will be almost entirely exposed to the surrounding air, and atthis point. the importance of having the fruit receiving channels openboth periphcrally andA cndwise of the wheel. will be clear. since thisconstruct-ion greatly facili- 'tutes the fullest exposure of the incasedentity to the outer air. 'It will alsobe clear that the upstandingguards 14', will prevent the entity from rolling ofi' the` wheel.laterally thereof.

It is desired to explain that as the whccl blades ascend out of thebath. thc latter drains ot't from the projecting portions of the wheel,cleanly. and much after the fashion of water, although in fact. the bathmaterial is slightly' thicker and less fluid than water. It is alsonoted from actual practice that the wheel blades. from the delivery tothe intake position, do not apprcciably cool oil from the bathtemperature. i This is partly due to the slight period of exposure tothe outer air, and partly due to the fact that the blades are hollow andfilled with dead air that is maintained at substantially bathtemperature. If the wheel was of a skeleton form, the bla-des would losemuch of their tem erature in passing. from the delivery to the lntakeposition.

By reason of the relatively 10W temperature of the fruit comparedt thebath, the shell begins to set just as soon as the fruit enters the bath,and by the time it is lifted out of the bath, the inner` ortions of theshell have set, leaving only at in portion outside, to be set by theouter air. Hence, I am assured of a casing completely covering the fruitand uniformly setting, just as soon as the fruit has been raised to thedelivery position in relation to wall 33. Further, the fruit is reallynever in a single position While in Contact with any blade, and thisprevents abutting contact from having any tendency to prevent a completecoating of the fruit. n

I will next explain the particular nature of the bath material for whichthis device was particularly designed to operate.

In my application filed October 30, 1922,`

Serial No. 597.994, I have disclosed a bath maerial adapted to incaseeither frozen or vrefrigerated edibles, and this bath material iscomposed, in one embodiment, of asphalt and parain, and in anotherembodiment, of asphalt, parafiin, and stearin.

The parafiin is the body ingredient, the as phalt is the binder andthickener, and the stearin is the hardener. The preferred minimum andmaximum melting point paraffin which I have found practical, is thathaving a low melting point. of 118 F. and a hi h melting point of 130 F.As regards aspha t, the low melting point may be 110 F. and the highmelting point 120 F.. with a penetration of 80 to 90. As regardsstearine, (vegetable base rather than cococine base) the low meltingpoint may be 140 F. and the high melting point 150 F. The most practicalproportions of the three ingredients, on a hundred pound mix.isz-paraffin. 80 lbs.; asphalt` 121/, lbs.: and stcarine, 71/2 lbs.

In practice, I prefer to keep the resulting bath at about one hundredand twenty five degrecs F., although with different melting pointmaterials higher or lower bath temperatures are practically possible andI would say that a minimum bath temperature would be substantially 120F. and a maximum bath temperature 130 F.

y 'lhis bath is a quick cooling bath material. In practice. I have foundthat I cannot get instant cooling of the material without having thefruit refrigerated to some extent. However. I use the terni refrigeratedbroadly, and have gotten good results where the fruit was at as high atemperature as fifty degrees F., but better results, that is, quickersetting of the casings can bc obtained if the ,fruit is between and 40degrees F. The main reason why the fruit should be at a tcmperature insharp contrast with the bath, which is broadly a refrigerated fruit, isthat with such a low temperature, the casing is set not only by theouter air, but also by the inner coolimgr action of the fruit. This isimportant by reason of the tact that the material is a low conductor ofheat, which is a highly valuable property. 4In this respect, I havefound that'best results have been obtained in having the dippingoperation carried on with the surrounding air not above seventy degreesF. However, better results can be obtained if the surrounding air istween fifty and sixty degrees F. This sur rounding temperature" isimportant, as according to the best of my knowledge, the

' quick settingof the easing is the result of thejoint action of thecool fruit, on the inside of the shell and the cool air cn the outsideof Till the shell.

As a guide to the public, in. carryingout this method, it may bestate'dlthat.ivferfiriel stance, the both coolsmto an'extrenie beloivits practical minimum temperature, then the coating on the fruit wouldvbe far too thick, or it the time of immersion was prolonged, the shellwould be far too thick, and further, with a normal bath tem erature andwith thc fruit say, at thirty one egrecs F., a too thick lcoa-ting wouldresult. In practice, I have found that a shell approximately the thickiness of a hensgegg 'isthe best,.es eeially for hard fruit like pears andapples,v or instance. For softer vfruit like grape fruit or cranoes, itmay be desirable to form a slightly thic ier shell.

If the teniperature of the bath was over the practical maximum. theshell would he too thin, irrespective of the period of immersion, and ifthe periodof immersion was toc rapid, the shell would be either too thinor would incornpletely cover thefruit.

The best results are obtained if the period of immersion is not over twoseconds and it may be as low as a second and a fraction.

I have successfully used asphalt and paraftin, in combination. without ahardener, and vhave succeeded in forming a complete shell about fruit inthe vsaine manner and with equal facility with respect to thecombination of ingredients above set forth, that is, including ahardencr, such as stearin. However. in the absence of a hardener, theshell vcannot be removed from the fruit nearly so easily as with ahardener. Thus, while I prefer toemploy the hardener. for the moreadvantageous results of quick removal of the shell` I do not Wish-to belimited thereto. l

A feature of importance is that the tank should not be made so large butthat the wheel will keep. the entire contents of the tank agitated,thereby preventing scumming,

and also acting to maintain a uniform temperature of the bath by reasonof the tact that'the constant agitation brings central or intermediateportions oi the bath material constantly into engagement with the heatedWalls of the tank. This is important because the constant ingressot1cooled or refrigcrated fruit, acts to cool the bath, and even if'anexcess of heat were applied to the bath, still, in the absence ofagitation, central portions of the bath would soon become too cool.

It will be noted that with the pockets or fruit receiving clninnels lnot only opening Y peripherally but'also laterally, the bath mate'ralwill drain oil iromthe ascending blades very quickly, and this isdesirable not only for the purpose of avoiding cooling oii of the bath.`but to prevent. anytcndency of the beth material to 'hardenV on "theblades in gobs.A

As a criterion ormy use ot the Word' refrigerated, it may b catcdvthatfl: useit in the sensgtliattcloperature which is low enough toietard or prevent bacterial growth.

In Figs. 3, 4. and 5, I have shown a modified for-melf my 'invention inwhich the.

heated vat is designated at 33. and isadaptM ed to contain the bathmaterial having a level shown at I have shown a periphe `al guard at 35,and lateral guards at 36. A gravity delivery board is shoivnuat A shaft39, is, jour-nailed in hearings 39 and may be'operated by a pulley andbelt40 and el. respectiveiy.

This forni of the invention has been dcvclopcd for small edibles and isof especial advantage in coating ice cream in the form disclosed by myhereinbei'orc identified case. I may say that the bath, i'or thismachine, Wouldv vfollowv the .temperatnr'eand' other in structions setforth in said case as regards the lower point melting asphalt andpaiailin than should he used on fruit, to economical advantage.

In this form of the invention. the immersing member is shown in the formof a U-shaped receiver having a concave receiving portion 42. and acombined immcrsing and gravity delivery portion 43. The ball ofegg-shaped body of ice cream is adviscdly of smaller diameter than theconcave receiving portion 42. so that the ice crean; body will be treeto turn and will merely be float ingly guided through the bath and byreason of its limited but tree action under buoyancy, all portionswillbe coated. The bath material is free to move past the guard 35 and bebrought into engagement' with the heated Walls ot the vat, as in thepreferred construction.

In Fig. 3, I have shown in dotted lines, one stage of revolution oil theimmersing member wherein the' innnersino; portion 43 is causingr the icecream body to descend in the bath.

In the dotted line position in Fig. 4, the ice cream body is buoyantlylifted into engagement with the receiving portion 42`. In the full lineposition in Fig. 4, I show how the delivery portion 43 registers withdelivery board 37 so that the coated ice cream body can roll oi bygravity. The speed of this type of machine, for this particular purpose,will be as rapid as the feed-in means, which may be either manual orotherwise, will permit.

I do not wish to be limited to the disclosure herein made Aexcept forsuch limitations as the claims may import.

I claim:

1. The herein-described method of incasl ing edibles, which consists, inloatingly immersing the edible into and through a hot bath of quickhardening incasing material with the edible freely moving responsive tobuoyant action to thereby expose all peripheral portions of the edibleto said bath, and in withdrawing the coated edible from the bath.

2. The herein-described method of incasing fruit entities, whichconsists, in iloatingly mmersing a cold or cooled fruit entit into andthrough a hot bath of quick har ening material with the entity freelymoving responsive to buoyant action to thereby expose all peripheralportions of the entity to said bath, and in withdrawing the ncasedentity from the bath and exposing the entity to a cooling atmosphere tohasten setting of the material.

3. The herein-described method of incasing fruit entities, whichconsists, in loatingly moving a fruit entity of a temperature atapproximately forty degrees F., in a liquid bath of quick hardeningmaterial having approximately a temperature of 120 to 130 degrecs F.,and removing the coated entity WILLIS D. THOMPSON.

into a surrounding air temperature of not l over seventy degrees F., andpreferably under such temperature.

4. The herein-described method of incasing edibles, which consists, inoatingly immersing a buoyant edible into and through a heated bath ofquick hardening material to Y coat the edible, in restricting the volumeof the bath material suliiciently to cause agitation of the latter byassage of the edible therethrough 'and there y prevent sc andmaintaining the material substantially uniform in temperature in allportions of the bath, and in withdrawing the coated edi ble from thebath.

5. The herein-described method of incasing edibles which consists, iniloatintly immersing a buoyant edible into and' rough ahnt bath of quickhardening incasing material with the edible freely movable responsive'teits buoyancy to t ereby expose all peri heral portlons of the edible tosaid bath, the th being sulliciently restricted in v01-

